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After 26 years in business, with offices in New York and Nevada, Catseye Pest Control hopes to rid Southwest Florida homes of nuisance creatures.

The company opened in Bonita Springs earlier this month and plans to make the office its corporate headquarters. Catseye — named the nation’s fastest growing pest control company in 2009 by Pest Control Technology magazine — will serve Lee, Collier and Charlotte counties.

“We chose Southwest Florida because of the heavy pest pressure that it has and the climate,” said owner John Gagne, who moved to Naples four years ago. “Areas we work in are somewhat brutal in terms of weather temperature.”

Catseye, which employs about 70 people between its three locations, hopes to eventually launch in other areas of Florida. Seven employees so far have relocated to Bonita from the New York office and Catseye plans to hire more than 50 local employees in the coming months.

Positions will span from field technicians to trainers, marketing experts, customer service specialists and filmmakers who will create musical, animated commercials that feature the company’s Caddie the cat mascot and are produced in-house.

Gagne started Catseye in 1987, after working for a national pest control competitor for 10 years.

“My wife and I used the family station wagon and went door-to-door and started picking up customers,” said Gagne, whose daughters, Jessica and Alexandria, work in the New York and Nevada offices. “That was really the only advertising we did.”

Catseye — named after a 1985 horror film written by Stephen King — is known for exclusion work for pests such as palm rats that infiltrate Southwest Florida in the winter.

“We find the locations where these rats get in, and we have permanent solutions to eliminate them from getting in,” Gagne said. “It takes four or five days of trapping and harvesting and then we seal them out for good.”

The company uses thermal imaging to detect pests, limits the amount of pesticides it uses and seals homes with a caulk manufactured by General Electric especially for Catseye, Gagne said.

“Quality of service is what we pride ourselves on, and we feel we’re bringing something the residents of Southwest Florida have not seen before,” he said.